Watching her mother undergo breast cancer surgery was emotional enough for a teenage Leah Wyrick to serve as motivation to develop a recovery bra now available locally and online under the Three Strands Recovery Wear brand.
Nancy Myrick’s mastectomy was followed by three post-surgery procedures, as least one of which her daughter believed could have been prevented by a better recovery bra.
Wyrick said that as her mother was getting in bed after her mastectomy, she accidentally put her knee down on her drain tubing and completely ripped it from her skin “because unfortunately her drain didn’t have a safe place to rest.”
The incident compelled Wyrick to begin designing in 2018 — while in high school in Salisbury — what she has branded as the Resilience Bra.
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Wyrick said the bras were designed to combine functionality with adaptability, allowing certain features to be removed when they are no longer necessary. This transformation capability turns the bra into a sports bra, helping patients regain a sense of normalcy.
By 2019, at age 19 and in her freshman year at Wake Forest University, Wyrick founded Three Strands.
Myrick pursued her start-up business dream while a student in Wake Forest’s School of Business. She recently graduated with a concentration in Marketing and minor in Entrepreneurship.
On April 1, after raising or gaining grants worth more than $115,000, Myrick officially launched her business on — remarkably still as full owner at https://threestrandsrecoverywear.com/.
Wyrick said the bras combine functionality with adaptability, allowing certain features to be removed when they are no longer necessary. This transformation capability turns the bra into a sports bra, helping patients regain a sense of normalcy.
After nearly four years of development and getting her feet wet with marketing pitches to potential investors, Wyrick said that by mid-2023, “it was do or die — this product was either going to thrive or it wasn’t.”
She launched in August her final pilot program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Novant Health Medical Park Hospital. Two months later, she gained her first committed purchase orders from the hospitals.
The bras are available locally in Elegant Profile at: 2830 Maplewood Ave, Suite A, in Winston-Salem; Second To Nature Boutique at 4123 Lawndale Drive, Suite 101, in Greensboro; and Unique Boutique Concord, 200 Medical Park Drive NE, No. 145 in Concord.
Among her grant awards have been: $4,000 in March in the pre-revenue stage competition of Winston Starts’ fifth annual investor forum; top prize of $25,000 from Center for Creative Economy’s Velocity Creative Accelerator program in October 2021; $2,000 in software consultation from Sightsource and pro bono legal services from Kilpatrick Townsend.
Myrick took time recently to discuss her journey with the Resilience Bra and Three Strands. An edited version follows.
Three Strands has the inspirational mantra of “You are strong. You are brave. You are resilient.” How and why does that sum up the company, and where did the inspiration come from?
“A significant aspect of our mission is to reflect real people and real experiences in our brand.
“When I was creating the name and identity for our brand, I aimed for it to represent strength and power, qualities that these women embody as they navigate this challenging phase in their lives.
“During my mother’s battle with breast cancer, she exhibited a kick-ass attitude and a determination that breast cancer would not define her life.
“I incorporated this attitude into our brand by using different colors, such as blue tones, which symbolize strength and calmness. One of the most important parts of our mission is to show real patients in our photos. We don’t seek to sugarcoat this challenging process, but rather to showcase real women battling or overcoming breast cancer.
“Our goal is for our patients to look at these real breast cancer models and think, ‘She looks like me’ or ‘I can see the strength she has, and I can have that too.’”
When did you recognize the need for better recovery products and how did you figure out you had ideas that could be solutions?
“Currently, competitors’ post-surgical bras fall short, forcing patients to develop their own solutions to post-surgical complications, such as creating drain pocket holders from aprons and beer koozies, or even resorting to taping drains to their skin.
“More importantly, these bras lack significant design, comfort and feature innovations that impact patients’ physical and mental healing.
“During this critical phase of recovery, patients should be able to rely on their post-surgical garments to function effectively, allowing them to heal without the fear of complications hindering their return to a normal life after surgery.
“After building out the first initial prototypes, I started to receive some local media attraction. I had the chance to share my mom‘s story and the story behind creating the Resilience Bra and through that, I received hundreds and hundreds of emails, Facebook messages and comments from breast cancer patients across the country all sharing that they wish they would’ve had a better product like the Resilience Bra after their surgeries.
“It was then that I knew we had something special.
“What kept me moving forward was the thought that if I don’t do this, if I don’t create this bra, then who will? That is what keeps me going through all the highs, lows and tears of building this business.
“More than one million breast surgical procedures are performed in the U.S. annually, and a significant one in three women encounter post-surgical complications.
“The post-surgery recovery is incredibly traumatic for patients, marked by pain, sensitivity and a loss of normalcy. Today, there is no recovery garment solution that effectively manages post-surgical drains, adapts to a patient’s changing body throughout the healing process, offers the comfort needed for 24/7 wear over six to eight weeks, and is aesthetically pleasing to help restore self-confidence in patients.
“The Resilience Bra solves all four critical challenges with our patented features that prioritize drain management, bra adjustment, comfort and individualized style — catering uniquely to each patient.”
How much of your sales is from word-of-mouth and medical recommendations?
“We decided to solely focus on wholesale distribution of the bra with hospitals and mastectomy boutiques.
“By doing this, our goal was to establish brand trust and loyalty with the endorsements from physicians and top cancer institutes around the country. This not only allows us to establish credibility and trust within the healthcare industry, but also allows us to save from the expensive marketing costs of launching only direct to consumer.
“Since launching, we work with more than 10 hospitals and mastectomy boutiques in North Carolina, including Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute, Cone Health, Novant Health and the American Cancer Society.
“We are also currently in pilot with Moffitt Cancer Center (ranked #10 in the country), Vanderbilt (ranked #16 in the country) and Cleveland Clinic (ranked #6 in the country).
“Physicians, nurse navigators and mastectomy boutique owners have not seen new and innovative products in this industry in decades, so the Resilience Bra in a way is bringing color to such a black and white industry.
“In a way, the Three Strands Recovery Wear is not just providing innovative garments to all breast surgical patients, but we are trying to bridge this gap between the hospital and mastectomy boutiques.
“This ensures the patient not only get the best care from their hospital and physician, but also takes time to meet with fitters that will help patients regain a sense of normalcy after surgery and provide them with the education to know how many post-surgical garments insurance will cover for them even years post-surgery.
“Since officially launching Three Strands on April 1, my mind is focused on getting inventory out the door to help as many patients across North Carolina as we can and gradually expanding our business across the country to impact millions.
“Today, we are already speaking and piloting with five major hospitals all ranked in the top-16 cancer institutes in the country. I would say we have built a really strong foundation for us to work on over the next year and I cannot wait to see what we can accomplish.”
Most college students struggle to keep their heads during their freshman year, much less have the wits and time to start a new business. Can you share some of the challenges to launching Three Strands, how you figured out how to design, produce, market and scale your business?
“Starting my freshman year at Wake Forest, I was an intended biology major with plans to enter into the healthcare field after I graduated.
“However, one day as I was walking across the quad, I saw a sign for Pitch Over Pizza sponsored by the Center of Entrepreneurship and decided to pitch my idea for the post-surgical recovery bra I had created back in high school. I was the only freshman accepted into the program that year.
“Starting a business, especially in my freshman year, was not an easy task, and in some cases I felt like a huge outcast as one of the only solo founders and non-business major students.
“However, early on I was lucky enough to be surrounded by incredible mentors, many of which believed in me and my company before I ever believed in myself. Since joining Winston Starts in 2020, I was surrounded by incredible mentors, a few of which have been with me over the course of four years since I started the business.
“In addition to great mentors, I think it is also critical as an entrepreneur to have the quality of curiosity and always being willing to ask those difficult questions while also having the quality of doing more listening than talking.”
How important has winning or placing in startup or small-business pitch competitions been in terms of exposure before potential investors, as well as getting advice?
“I feel very fortunate to live in North Carolina where there are many opportunities for entrepreneurs to be supported both with capital and resources.
“Pitch competitions have been the most essential part of my business over the last five years, as I have completely bootstrapped everything from the ground up.
“While some entrepreneurs decide to give away equity early on in their business, I decided it was important for me to take a slower approach by trying my best to win pitch competitions so that money could go into testing the market and viability of my business before investing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“A huge part of the way I was able to do over four years of testing on my product was because of NC IDEA. When I was a senior at Wake Forest I was given the opportunity to receive the NC IDEA Micro grant which I used to do a 60-patient beta test with patients across the country in 13 states.
“Through this beta test, we learned a lot from our customers on what was working well and what was not. From there I used that patient feedback to develop the fifth and MVP version of the Resilience Bra.
“During the same time as our testing, I was also applying for the NC IDEA Seed grant, which was about a four-month application process competing for $50,000.
“After our successful pilot, we started to gain traction across six hospitals that gave us the opportunity to give a strong case as to why that $50,000 would be influential to our business as it would allow us to buy our first 3,000 bras.
“We were fortunate enough to receive the NC IDEA Seed grant in November, which was a catalyst for launching our product with over 10 hospitals and mastectomy boutiques in North Carolina.”
Do you have plans to go on ‘Shark Tank’ which has investors that can provide major start-up funds but at the cost of a significant ownership stake, or is that not a realistic or wanted goal?
“’Shark Tank’ is not off the table, and one day I hope to follow behind Storage Scholars (aired on season 14 in 2022) who I had the pleasure of working alongside of in Start Up Lab at Wake Forest in 2019.”
How important overall has Winston Starts, and Winston-Salem overall, been in terms of doing business when you are likely able to go elsewhere?
“Growing up in Salisbury, I knew how important it was to be in a smaller city where I could have a sense of community.
“Over the span of four years that I was at Wake Forest, Winston Salem quickly became my community supporting me not only as a student, but as a business owner.
“I feel so grateful for the entrepreneurship programs that Winston-Salem has provided me from the Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest University to Winston starts to the Center for Creative Economy to NC IDEA, but also the pro bono support I have also received from other business across Winston Salem like Kilpatrick Townsend and SightSource.
“In my opinion, there is no better place to have started and founded a business than Winston-Salem.
“The amount of resources, entrepreneurial programs and smart business minded people that are in this city blows my mind every day and I am grateful to have gotten a glimpse of this over the years that I’ve been building my business.
“There is no way that I would go anywhere else other than Winston-Salem to continue building and scaling Three Strands Recovery Wear.”